Lost in Translation

The most challenging part of innovation, also in Food, is the translation of a great insight or idea that you had in something tangible that you actually market at consumer level. A great example is that of Gerber in 1974 , a maker of baby food. According to Business Insider, Gerber believed that there was a market for single serving, ready to eat foods and they were right for sure, but what happened was that they stayed “in their box” and developed concepts and eventually products that they marketed and you guessed it similar to ready-made baby food.

It was food in glass jars targeted to college students and adults living on their own for the first time. similar to ready-made baby food. Hoping that college students and other adults would purchase such foods if they were not labelled as "baby food" Gerber developed their "Singles" product. The "fatal translation flaw" and the reason the product flopped, is that "packages of meat mush didn't exactly scream "cool" to young singles or was the way they imagined consuming fast fresh food"

It unfortunately doesn’t only happen in the past as also Today you see fresh produce/food products on the shelves that seem “off” on translation like i.e. green (only veggies) smoothie kits that ask you to add orange juice ( with tons of amount of sugar L) , organic and/or very authentic product that are offered in plastics (non eco-friendly), cool new products targeted at Geny Y or Z that have their own website (like young consumers care, they want Insta style stuff or Tasty type video’s), thinking that diversification can be translated in offering a new colours like in watermelons you now have yellow fleshed types that actually taste the same as the red ones instead they could have developed a more zesty taste adding a real new benefit and purpose to the novelty…

 That’s why it’s key to always keep your target consumer group involved in your innovation process, keep co-creating with them from idea to execution. This can be done in an agile and resource friendly way by inviting them to key (discovery and decision) moments as i.e. to your brainstorm sessions and when you have concepts explore with them in focus groups and be open to be driven by consumer insights next to your own.

Source: Gerber on Wikipedia